Nye 3
Clearing the land
the native Americans were already modifying the land http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.html
more on the American Axe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L23ZUpmoRsE
Daniel Boone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KQv14Om-78
cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXNIziwD8H0
what is left out of the myth is the dependence on skilled
craftsmen or by the 1830s factories
how do you turn a forest into a farm? in
New York state
- simply girdle the trees to kill them and plant around
them
- by about 1800
- cut down the trees, use some to build
- wait a year, then burn the rest of the felled timber in
the fields
- sell the ashes for potash
- plant around the remaining stumps
the
classic log cabin was a combination of traditions from different
parts of Europe
In class we made two parallel lists, comparing myth and reality